If you miss the following tips, it will be difficult to cross the IELTS score of 7.
Many people say that IELTS only tests details, but this is actually not true.IELTS also has structured questions/subjective questions, but they are not as difficult as GMAT and TOEFL.However, if you lack the skills to do these questions, there is basically no hope of getting above 7 points. Below I will briefly introduce my summary of 6-8.5 reading.
Details
Includes: fill-in-the-blank questions, true-or-false questions, character point of view questions, and some multiple-choice questions
1. Scan for easily noticeable keywords
After seeing the question, mark which words are easy to scan quickly, such asObvious numbers, years, capitalized special words, words in quotation marks, long words,For example, in the following example, when scanning without structured questions, do not read the content first, but scan for keywords first. Once you find them, you can start analyzing whether they are related to the question.
1997, 2006 April Adam Smith, Dr. Lynn Maffino Sequoia National Park the “left hand” of the policy
If you encounter a sentence that is not particularly easy to scan, it is best to rely on the main structure of the subjective question later to guess which paragraph it is in. Please see later for details.
2. Analyze by sentence
English sentence segmentation is regular, with one sentence having one meaning, which is different from the sentence segmentation method in Chinese. After finding the keyword, mark out the sentence where it is located and analyze the whole sentence.Generally speaking, the answer information is in this sentence, especially if there are other multi-words that correspond to the question sentence.If you can't find the corresponding word, you can also check before and after the sentence or within the paragraph.
3. Find the sentence corresponding to the topic with multiple words
The key to detail questions is to find the corresponding sentence in the original text. But sometimes IELTS questions will use some routines and may give some ambiguous sentences. At this time, you need to distinguish between two sentences with similar meanings and which one is the key point of the question.See which sentence has more words that correspond to the description in the title..
hereCorresponding words can be synonyms or corresponding synonymous parts, such as double negation, changing the way of saying things, switching between active and passive, switching between subject and object, etc..
4. Not Given (NG) refers to skipping and replacing concepts
Generally speaking, detail questions are asked in order, except for the reading questions that are interspersed with subjective structure questions. So a good way to judge NG is to see if you can find the corresponding sentences in the questions before and after your NG. If you can't find the corresponding sentences in the NG, it feels like you skipped them. This can usually be judged as NG, which means that the original text did not mention it.
Another type of NG is that the concept in the title is similar to the concept in the original text, but they are two different things. This is called stealing the concept, for example:
The question asks: This place is very hot in the summer; but the original text says that it is very dry in the summer. Dry and hot are indeed two concepts that often go together, but they are not consistent. The original text only talks about dryness, but not about heat, so you have to choose NG.
Structure Questions
Many people ignore this type of question, but it is difficult to get high scores if you ignore structural questions.It is the watershed of IELTS, usually appears in the second or third reading.
Includes: paragraph summary, paragraph content, most multiple-choice questions, multiple-choice questions
1. Read the first and last paragraphs, and the rest of the text will focus on the central sentence.
This method is used for questions that require reading the entire article. The first and last paragraphs are usually short, so you can read through them to understand the main idea of the article. This main idea is usually the basis for you to judge all the questions. For the rest of the paragraphs, you can usually read the first sentence, especially for more rigorous academic articles. Of course, there are also news articles that are self-narratives in IELTS, and the focus of such paragraphs may not be in the first sentence.
Usually after reading, you can draw a main structure diagram of the article like the one below when practicing, which will help you analyze how the article discusses and supports its main theme.When taking an exam, you can simply write the main idea of each paragraph next to the paragraph..
This kind of article theme analysis can quickly find the answers to the main idea and content of the paragraph. It is also convenient to guess the location of the theme-based multiple-choice questions and multiple-choice questions. For specific methods of finding the structure, you can refer to my Cambridge IELTS 16 Test 1 Second Reading:
2. Look at the content after the transition word
Signature words are such as However, But, Nevertheless. Generally speaking, their structures emphasize the following content. In the following examples, B is emphasized.
A. However, B. A, but BA Nevertheless, B. Although A, B.
In fact, it is consistent with Chinese. This can help you confirm which information the author emphasizes, especially when there are multiple options. The information after the transition word is important even if it is not the main point.
3. CER structure and usage
CER stands for Claim, Example, and Reasoning. When writing essays, use this structure to write sub-argument paragraphs. When reading, use it in reverse order, for example:
The multiple choice question asks you why and what is the reason for citing XX example in the essay in paragraph 5? In short, it supports the main point of paragraph 5. All you need to do is find the main point of paragraph 5. Of course, some paragraphs are not CER in one paragraph. Maybe CR is in the previous paragraph. E is relatively long and is given a separate paragraph.
4. The options are close to the topic
After completing the previous requirements, you should have a good understanding of the topic of the article. Remember: IELTS only looks for good academic articles, so there should be no nonsense in them. That is to say, every sentence in the article is linked to support the previous sub-arguments, and the sub-arguments support the core theme of the article.
So when choosing some main idea and intention questions, what you need to do is to find the options that support the main idea of the article and mark them. They are often the answers you want to choose.